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In pictures: Edward Kennedy

Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the most prominent political figures in the United States, has died aged 77.

Known universally as Teddy, Edward (bottom right) was the last senior member of the political dynasty that took a leading role in the country's affairs for many decades.

Born in 1932 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy was educated at a local school and Harvard. At 18, he was suspended from Harvard for getting someone to sit an exam for him.

He had his first experience of politics the previous year, when he managed John F Kennedy's campaign for a second term in the Senate; and in 1960 he helped with his brother's presidential campaign.

Kennedy himself won a Senate seat for Massachusetts in 1962, at the age of 30 - the minimum age for a senator. It was not an altogether popular victory; Kennedy critics dismissed it as a piece of nepotism.

He fought the seat again two years later and was re-elected for his first full term with an increased majority - although he had to conduct his campaign from a hospital bed after fracturing his spine in an air accident.

His two remaining elder brothers, President John F Kennedy and presidential contender Senator Robert Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s. Their eldest brother was killed in WWII.

He was widely expected to be the next Kennedy in the White House, but was unable to fully overcome the scandal caused in 1969 when he drove a car off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, killing his female passenger.

The incident helped derail his only presidential bid. He led early primaries against Jimmy Carter, but had to accept he had no chance by August 1980. His speech to the party convention was deemed the best of his career.

Mr Kennedy later became a standard bearer for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, steering ground-breaking social reforms into law. He remained active in the Senate until diagnosed with a brain tumour last year.

In January 2008, he endorsed Barack Obama, who was serving his first term as a senator for Illinois, for the Democratic presidential nomination. He later electrified delegates when he addressed the partyís convention.

In a statement announcing his death on Wednesday after a long battle with a brain tumour, Senator Kennedy's family said the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance would live on.

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